Apple Pushes Color E-Books for iPad with iBooks 1.2

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Apple is making a big push for illustrated e-books in the iBookstore, The New York Timeshas said.

More than 100 new color e-books are being introduced into the store with iBooks 1.2, the newest version of Apple's iPad e-reader software, which debuted on Wednesday. These books include children's books, cookbooks, and photo books, the Times said.

Popular texts like chef Thomas Keller's cookbook "Ad Hoc at Home," books from the "Olivia" children's book series, and photographer Ansel Adams' collection of images called "In the National Parks" are a few examples of the content that will be included.

Illustrated picture books for kids are a big part of Apple's announcement, the Times said. They're also something publishers have been gunning for.

Publisher Jon Anderson from Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing said his company has been "itching to do it since e-books became possible," but they were limited by the lack of color options. "It finally gives us the opportunity to have our picture books join the e-book revolution," he said. "It gives us great opportunity to monetize our content in a way that we previously haven't been able to."

Some of the first books from Simon & Schuster that will be included in the color e-books rollout in the iBookstore are Candace Fleming's "Tippy-Tippy-Tippy, Hide!"; Elise Broach's "When Dinosaurs Came With Everything;" and Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell's "And Tango Makes Three."

The Times said that according to Anderson, at the beginning of 2011, color e-books will be released at the same time as a print edition. This is already the status quo for text-only e-books and their print versions.

Disney Publishing, HarperCollins, the Hachette Book Group, and MacMillan and Workman Publishing are other publishers that will begin producing color illustrated e-books for the iBookstore, Apple told the Times.

Leslie Horn joined the PCMag team as a news reporter in the fall of 2010. She covers a wide range of topics from digital media to the latest Apple rumor. After graduating with a degree in Magazine Journalism from the University of Missouri, she wrote for Out & About, a travel guide in coastal Maine. One of her favorite reporting experiences was covering the 2008 Olympics from Beijing. She travels every chance she gets, and recently spent time backpacking along the coast of Brazil. Though she...
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